“Deliver me from nothing”, when the Boss changed back to Bruce

Legend has it that Bruce Springsteen doesn’t love his most famous nickname, the one born in his early days when he collected and redistributed his band’s wages, and which became his middle name: The Boss.
A leader, macho image, behind which lies a man who has struggled with depression for most of his life. The moment in which, behind the scenes, something broke is what “Liberami dal niente”, the film that arrives in theaters on October 23, tells us.
The film chronicles the period between ’81 and ’82 that led to “Nebraska” and the Boss deviating from his trajectory towards the stardomwith a handful of dark and raw songs: on October 24th the masterpiece album returns in one expanded edition which we will talk to you about at length in the next few days. Meanwhile there is the film, presented in Italy, with previews in Milan and Rome, where Jeremy Allen White, the actor made famous by the series “The Bear” who plays Springsteen, and Scott Cooper, the director and author of the screenplay based on the eponymous book by Warren Zanes, were also present.

The Boss or Bruce?

“Free me from nothing” is the story of the contrast between the public and private image of a rock star, of the Boss on stage and of Bruce, who in private struggles with his demons, trying to come to terms with the memory of a childhood marked by family traumas caused by his father.
A phase, the one between “Nebraska” and “Born in the USA”, which Bruce cares about so much that he made it the center of his autobiography “Born to Run” – in which he revealed his struggle with depression – and that he actively participated in both Zanes’ book and the film. “When we met, Jon Landau told me that it was the first time in 50 years that Springsteen had given up control of his story to someone else,” says Cooper, who explains that he was guided by Bruce himself to the places where he grew up and that phase of his life took place: Colts Neck, Asbury Park, his childhood home in Freehold. “Being able to recreate this world with his help, having him with us on set, helped us enormously and I think we succeeded,” he explains. “I think he agreed to make this film because it is his most personal album, and this story will help us understand that better.”

Bruce or Jeremy?

Enormous help from Springsteen also means enormous pressure to bring an icon to the big screen, in a believable way: the result is a powerful story, a film that is more about the man than the musician.
The story, obviously, fictionalises a story that fans know well, but without making it too spectacular and respecting the substance of Springsteen’s artistic journey – and also filling it with small details that the superfans themselves will recognize and appreciate.
The musical moments are relatively few in the economy of the story, but Jeremy Allen White is superb in restoring a recognizable and credible Springsteen both as a person and as a performer, without becoming a “Such and Which Show” style imitator.
“I admire Springsteen’s courage,” says Allen White, recalling when he met him for the first time at Wembley, shortly before a concert. “It intimidated me, in a way, knowing that after a few months I would have to try to capture a bit of everything I saw on stage. I discovered that in his shows there is such a physicality, almost a violence in his performances on stage, but also a great passion. Getting to know him and talking to him I discovered a kindness and a real presence. There was an enormous amount of courage in that phase of his life, for leaning on and asking for help from those he was close to him. And courage today, for allowing me and Scott to put our hands on his life, for a moment.”

Family and showbiz

“Free me from nothing” is a film that touches on various themes, not just the fight against depression. Jeremy Strong (“Succession”) masterfully plays Jon Landau, friend and manager, the one who guides him and pushes him to take care of himself and his music, protecting him from the pressures of the industry: “Find a story to tell, I’ll deal with the background noise,” he says to Springsteen at a certain point. In this, “Liberami dal niente” tells a universal story: that of the pressures of success in the world of music, already at the center of “A complete unknown”, the biopic on Dylan.
The other universal story, which is the driving force of the film, is the relationship with the father. Bringing Doug Springsteen to the screen is Stephen Graham, who only a short time ago had played another memorable father figure in the series “Adolescence”: there he was an impotent and thoughtful father, dealing with a son he discovered he didn’t know or understand. Here he is an absent and dysfunctional father, at times violent, who scares his son and affects his life. Recognizing Bruce’s value only when he is a finished, but fragile man. However, the figure of his mother Adele (Gaby Hoffman), who was a constant reference in Springsteen’s life, is marginal in the film. But films, as we know, make choices: so the only invented character is Faye Romano (Odessa Young), a sort of summation of his girlfriends at the time, and which puts him faced with the inability to build a normal relationship.

The human side of “Nebraska”

At the center of the story, however, there is also and above all “Nebraska”: “Bruce Springsteen is political, but not in the sense of a party, but rather human. And his album talks about people who live on the margins of society”, explains Scott Cooper, who says he discovered him as a boy precisely through that album. “It’s about the underprivileged, those who live lives of quiet desperation, people who strive for the American dream and don’t succeed. That’s what Springsteen wrote about in 1982 and continues to do today. And I think that’s why the album is so relevant, certainly to me, to the times we live in America.”
“In ‘Nebraska,’ I feel confusion, a lot of anger, but also a longing for connection,” adds Allen White. “It was born out of isolation, but at the end of the day, when I listen to it, I feel very understood. There’s a lot of empathy in that record. In the state of the world or the United States, there’s a lot of anger and confusion, but I also hear a lot of hope in the records.”

The film faithfully recounts, based on Warren Zanes’ book, the creation of an album that at the time left many people perplexed – starting with the record companies who wanted songs to play on the radio – but which became a recognized masterpiece. The expanded edition that comes out on October 24 will reveal the outtakes from the legendary cassette recorded at home and then used as a master – whose story is told in the film – and also the electric sessions, recreated on the screen. In this sense, “Deliver me from nothing” tries to combine the attention to detail requested by fans with a human story that attracts even those who only know Springsteen superficially.
“As I always say,” says Scott Cooper, “He just happened to be Bruce Springsteen. He would never have agreed to make a movie about ‘Born in the USA’ or ‘Born to Run,’ he didn’t want to make a movie about the myth.” To then conclude: “Jeremy shares many traits with Bruce Springsteen and one of these is humility. I think Jeremy deserves an Oscar.”